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Local and regional filmmakers to showcase their films at the Urbana IMC

(Originally published in buzz magazine on 2/2/2008)

Let me guess. You’re looking for something fun to do this weekend.
Something different. Something that will help you forget about these
unshoveled sidewalks and killer wind chills—but without blowing too
much cash.

Fear not, for the Independent Media Center in the historic
Urbana Post Office Building is hosting a film festival this Friday,
Saturday and Sunday—and admission is free! The IMC held out an open
invitation for local and regional filmmakers of the indie bent to
submit their works, and now nearly 30 films from about 20 directors
will be screened.

“We really wanted it to be open to anyone who makes films,”
IMC Outreach and Development Coordinator Nicole Pion said. “We wanted
to bring more people into the IMC, and it’s really grown beyond our
expectations.”

The center’s first full-fledged film fest drew cineastes from
Champaign County as well as Chicagoland and Iowa City, said Brian
Dolinar, an event organizer and Public i journalist.

The event is an opportunity for independent filmmakers to show their work and be recognized, he said.

“We’re providing a space for them,” Dolinar said. “It’s a long ways from Hollywood here.”

The films on tap this weekend will run the gamut from
documentaries to mockumentaries, from dramas to comedies and from art
films to talk shows.

Festivities kick off Friday at 6 p.m. with refreshments and
the dope compositions of Urbana’s own DJ Belly. Friday screenings last
until midnight.

Saturday’s events include family-friendly film screenings
(courtesy of That’s Rentertainment) from noon to 2 p.m., a social from
5 to 6:30 p.m. livened up by a local jazz band, a dance party and
screenings until midnight.

Sunday closes out the festival with Central Illinois comedy troupe Zoo Improv at 4 p.m. and movies until 10 p.m.

Concessions such as popcorn, pizza, cookies, soda and coffee will on sale all three nights to help support the center.

“One goal of the festival is to raise funds for the Production Group,” Pion said.

The IMC Production Group plans to use proceeds to purchase
cameras and other filmmaking equipment for use by the general public.

“The Indie Media Movement has as its goal to get independent
media in the hands of local people, and filmmaking is becoming more and
more affordable,” Dolinar said. “We’re part of a larger network across
the globe of people trying to promote a do-it-yourself attitude toward
media and to cultivate the idea that anyone can be a media-maker.”

Area resident Luke Boyce submitted two films: a 35-minute
experimental film entitled Prelude shot on a $400 budget and Sugar, an
award-winning 7-minute comedy shot on an $18,000 budget and starring
several Screen Actors Guild members.

Prelude is a production of Essence Films, an offshoot of Shatterglass Studios.

But his true passion is filmmaking, which he does with his RED camera.

“It shoots 35 millimeter film at four times the resolution of an
HD camera,” he said. “An indie company produced (the camera) cheaper
than Sony, and it puts Hollywood-quality technology in the hands of
independent filmmakers.”

Illinois alumnus and former Illini Film and Video president Chris Lukeman entered The Transient for the festival.

“Our movie is about a homeless vigilante and his caseworker,
Steve, as they try to stop Vampire Abraham Lincoln and his gang of
punks from sucking the blood of four score and seven virgins,” Lukeman
said. “It’s an 80s action comedy with a little bit of horror in there.
Not so much slapstick comedy, but definitely not meant to be taken
seriously.”

The 24-year-old from Jacksonville, Illinois made the movie
with the current president and vice president of Illini Film and Video.
The Transient was completed early last fall, but Lukeman decided to
wait until later to launch the film.

“We’re trying to use this as our Champaign-Urbana premiere,
especially considering how February 12 is Lincoln’s 200th birthday,” he
said. “It’s a really, really fun movie and a fast watch. And yeah, we
just had a lot of fun with it. We tried not to be too controversial
with Lincoln as a bloodsucking nemesis.”

Other screenings include Patrick Thompson and Martel Miller’s
2004 police scandal documentary that led the Champaign police to press
charges of eavesdropping on the pair of activists.

“The film exposed a sharp contrast between the police
department’s treatment of the black community and campus,” Dolinar
said. “They have a hands-off attitude toward students, but not towards
the black community.”

This will be the documentary’s first screening since the Champaign police filed a lawsuit against Thompson and Miller.

Professor of Educational Policy Studies Antonia Darder will show
her 20-minute exposé organized through her research team, Diversity and
Technology for Engaging Communities.

“It’s a stellar project,” Dolinar said. “It’s exposing
unrecorded and secret history of race relations at the University of
Illinois.”

Movie screenings won’t be the only feature presentations at
the IMC Film Festival. The daring art installations of Chris Hampson
should crank the entertainment up a notch.

“I’ve been working on a composition for an ensemble of
televisions called ‘The TV Show,’” Hampson said. “Imagine your living
room flipped inside out: the TV has taken your spot on the couch and
your life is the show. The common household instrument of mass mind
control becomes a musical instrument in a unique composition for six TV
sets.”